BEIRUT (AP) — Islamic State fighters broke through the defenses of a major military air base in northeastern Syria on Sunday, seizing control of at least part of a facility that is the last government-held outpost in an area dominated by the extremist group, activists said.
The Islamic State group launched its long-anticipated offensive last week to seize the sprawling Tabqa air field, located some 45 kilometers (25 miles) from the extremists’ powerbase in the city of Raqqa. The air base is one of the most significant government military facilities in the area, containing several warplane squadrons, helicopters, tanks, artillery and ammunition. After several failed efforts to breach the facility’s walls in recent days, Islamic State fighters managed to punch through and storm the air field Sunday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Muslim extremists captured at least part of the base, while fighting raged in only a few isolated sections still in the military’s hands, the Observatory said. It added that government warplanes were conducting airstrikes against the attacking forces.
Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said dozens of government troops were killed in the clashes, while others retreated toward the southwest. At least 100 Islamic State group fighters have been killed and 300 wounded in the fighting in recent days, he said.
Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, said the jihadis had taken full control of the airfield.
The Syrian state news agency, however, presented a different account. It quoted an unnamed military official as saying that army units defending Tabqa were still holding out and fighting, and had inflicted losses among the attackers.
Since seizing control of much of northern and western Iraq in June and declaring the establishment of self-styled caliphate, the Islamic State group has also succeeded in consolidating its hold on a huge tract of northeastern Syria.
It has overwhelmed outposts held by rival rebels in Deir el-Zour province, which borders Iraq, while also systematically picking off isolated government bases in the northeast, decapitating army commanders and pro-government militiamen and putting their heads on display.
Last month, Islamic State fighters overran the sprawling Division 17 military base in Raqqa, killing at least 85 soldiers. Two weeks later, the extremists seized the nearby Brigade 93 base after days of heavy fighting.
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